On Thursday October 30, 2016, in Toulouse, France, Safran and ISAE-SUPAERO celebrated a new joint teaching and research chair being created in their field of innovative propulsive architecture. The ultimate goal is to develop world-class expertise in innovative propulsive architecture.

A sponsorship agreement to promote world-class teaching and research in the field of innovative propulsive architecture was co-signed on May 30, 2016 by Philippe Petitcolin, Safran Group CEO, ISAE-SUPAERO, and the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation.With a budget to the tune of €1.25m, the five-year sponsorship agreement will make it possible to work on a cutting-edge program which aims to shed light on the choice of propulsive architectures for future generations of aircraft.

The stakes are high for Safran and for the industry. As regards environmental protection, it will be a matter of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and noise emissions. In terms of business-related aspects, the aim is to boost propulsion efficiency so that the same mission can be carried out with less fuel and more passengers or cargo.

Consolidating propulsive integration expertise

The aim of this project is twofold for Safran: on the one hand, Safran is keen to consolidate research into propulsive integration by creating a world-class academic center of expertise. On the other hand, the Group is keen to promote a specialized training course for students in this field: ISAE Toulouse is indeed France's benchmark school for aeronautics training, making it a major recruitment target for Safran*.

The creation of a new chair, in the presence of Stéphane Cueille, Senior Executive Vice President, R&T and Innovation, Olivier Lesbre, Director of ISAE-SUPAERO, and Thierry Pardessus, Treasurer of the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation, provides an opportunity for the Group to make this partnership part of a long-term approach, since Safran is already a signatory for a chair with ISAE created in June 2011. Safran is also working alongside the school on three European projects focusing on advanced motorization: ENOVAL, E-BREAK and ULTIMATE. It is therefore a matter of supplementing these projects by giving future engineers the possibility to get more involved in this area.

*Safran has employed 69 students from ISAE Toulouse over the last two years

Safran is a leading international high-technology group with three core businesses: Aerospace (propulsion and equipment), Defence and Security. Operating worldwide, the Group has 70,000 employees and generated sales of 17.4 billion euros in 2015. Working independently or in partnership, Safran holds world or European leadership positions in its core markets. The Group invests heavily in Research & Development to meet the requirements of changing markets, including expenditures of more than 2 billion euros in 2015. Safran is listed on Euronext Paris and is part of the CAC40 index, as well as the Euro Stoxx 50 European index.